


Velociraptor Prom Night

by soulshrapnel



Category: Jurassic Park - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, American Sign Language, Canon-Typical Violence, Costumes, Crack, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Internalized Biphobia, Monster Lust, Multi, Prom, Questioning, the solution to this love triangle is raptors
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-03 23:12:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17886911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soulshrapnel/pseuds/soulshrapnel
Summary: Screw the awkward nice boy Alan *and* the smarmy bad boy Ian. From now on, Ellie was dating this Velociraptor.





	Velociraptor Prom Night

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a 48-hour fic challenge in another community. I only got through half of what I planned, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to write the second half, tbh, it started to do this annoying thing where chapter 1 feels complete on its own.

Ellie Sattler went to the prom dressed as an Olympic gymnast. An actual gymnast's leotard was against the dress code - too much bare leg, apparently - so what she'd come up with was a long-sleeved skintight leotard top, modest by the standards of gymnastics, sewn together with a long and brightly colored prom skirt, and an awkward small bun holding up her long hair. She looked ridiculous, but it was the best she'd been able to do, and she wasn't very interested in taking this prom thing seriously anyway.

She was especially not interested in taking this prom thing seriously because, due to shenanigans that she would rather not discuss, Ellie was attending this prom with Ian Malcolm, the smarmiest and most ridiculous boy in her math class.

Ian, apparently, wasn't taking it seriously either. He arrived at her door on the motorbike he'd only just gotten a license for, dressed in his usual black, but with a bright blue bath towel wrapped around his shoulders like a cape, and a bright yellow rubber ducky attached to his belt. A bunch of white flowers were stuffed carelessly into the sidecar.

Ellie wrinkled her nose. "What the hell, Ian?" Judging from their silent, disapproving presence behind her, her parents were wondering the same thing.

"I'm dressed as Michael Phelps. It's on theme. C'mon, prom won't go to itself."

"Maybe it should," Ellie complained, as she put on the proffered helmet and gingerly arranged herself on the seat behind him. The semiformal skirt made this unexpectedly difficult. She ended up awkwardly sidesaddle, having to cling to Ian's waist much more tightly than she would have preferred.

Ian pressed an unwanted kiss to her cheek. "Act like you like me, remember."

"Sure, Michael. Whatever you say."

The prom hadn't even started and she was regretting it already.

*

"I like the dress," Ian said presently while they idled at a stoplight. "Very purple."

Ellie was out of breath from trying desperately not to fall off the motorbike into traffic for the past ten minutes, and, relatedly, she was out of witty retorts. "It's a gymnastics. Dress. Thing."

"I like gymnastics. Do you do gymnastics?"

"No."

"That's a shame. Maybe I'll teach you some moves later."

"Go to hell, Malcolm," said Ellie, amused despite herself. "We're not actually dating."

"Sure," said Ian. The light turned green, and he zoomed off way faster than the speed limit on purpose.

*

"GO SPORTS," said the banner above the big gym. Not even a specific sport or team, just SPORTS. Other schools had proms with themes like "Fairy Tale" or "Under the Sea," but no, at Hammond High, every day had to be sports day. The gym was decorated with makeshift hanging sculptures, mandalas of footballs and baseballs and basketballs hanging from a macrame that resembled a soccer net. A table against one wall held a cheap sheet cake and a bowl of fruit punch.

"Did you make the dress yourself?" Ian asked as he meandered in with Ellie on his arm. Ellie wasn't sure if she was enjoying herself or wanted to punch him after that motorbike ride. But that was how she normally felt about Ian anyway.

"Yeah. What about you, what is that towel thing, anyway?"

"I told you, I'm Michael Phelps. Apparently just coming to the prom in swim trunks is against dress code or something, I don't know."

Ellie wrinkled her nose, amused. "That's because nobody wants to see your bare chest, Ian."

" _Everybody_ wants to see my bare chest, excuse _you_."

"And the rubber duck?"

"To denote that we're in an artificial pool of water. Look, they reminded me about the dress code at that last minute, I had to improvise."

"Uh huh," said Ellie, scanning around the gym for people she actually liked. Most of Ellie's fellow nerds had declined to attend prom. What was left were mostly popular kids, football players, and the gaggle of hopeful shy girls who normally followed Ian around at a distance. He was the type of high school boy who had that effect. Pheremones or something. 

The gaggle of hopeful shy girls could _have_ Ian, as far as Ellie was concerned. But Ian was the type who wanted a challenge. Two months ago he'd asked Ellie out and been turned down. One month ago he'd sweet-talked her into _pretending_ to date him, just until prom was over.

"I'll bet you can't," said Ian. "I'll bet money on it. If you can fool everybody up to the end of prom-"

"Not money, Ian. Ew. You're not _buying_ me."

Ian made a vague, expansive gesture, conceding the point. "Okay, non-monetary bet. Help with your math homework all next year if you win. Help with my biology all year if-"

"That's a terrible bet. I end up stuck with you either way. No deal."

"What do you _want_ , then?"

Ellie considered it.

"You buy me a hydroponics kit if I win," she said. She'd wanted one for ages, and her allowance wasn't big enough, but Ian's was. "And no cheating by telling people yourself at the last minute, or you forfeit."

"Okay. You either. And if I win? One actual date. I'll take you out to some fancy place and get you caviar or something. You won't be able to help but love me."

"You're on." And Ellie had settled in to a month of tolerating Ian's company for the sake of plants.

*

The music hadn't started yet, but Ian was already parading Ellie possessively around the dance floor, an arm around her waist and a hand idly playing with her own hand. Ellie wanted to tell him to cut it out, but she _had_ made the bet fair and square, and it felt kind of nice, his fingers tracing the lines of her knuckles while he jabbered on. Ian was, at least, good with his hands.

They passed a few gaggles of girls who looked over at Ian appreciatively as he passed. A clump of cheerleaders, the field hockey team, some rugby players. Ellie covertly returned the girls' rugby team's glances, even though she was fairly sure they were for Ian, not her. Ellie was not a sports fan, but there was something about strong, powerful girls.

Sometimes Ellie wondered if she liked girls _that_ way, maybe. But she was pretty sure that, to be a real lesbian, you had to be super punk rock or able to lift cars or something. And there was at least one boy she did think was cute, so that ruled _that_ out.

And there he was. As Ian continued to tug her around the room, they passed Alan Grant standing shyly in a corner.

"Hey, Alan," said Ellie, giving him a small wave.

"Um," said Alan. He brightened slightly as Ellie approached, then blinked as she saw who she was with, then narrowed his eyes. "Hey."

Alan was the cute, serious boy who sat next to Ellie in biology class. He never raised his hand and spent a lot of time doodling dinosaurs in the margins of his notes, but his grades were good. He and Ellie had been working together on a group project, and Ellie had been idly teaching him a little of the American Sign Language she'd picked up from the Deaf children she babysat on weekends. Alan clammed up when she talked about the kids themselves, though, or dating, or anything girly. Ellie had thought about asking him out before the whole Ian thing happened. She believed in equal opportunity and in girls asking boys out if they wanted to. But she suspected that, if she did ask Alan, he would retreat in silent terror into his doodles and it wouldn't accomplish anything.

"Hey, Alan," said Ian in an excessively casual tone. "Nice to see you here. Enjoying prom? Ellie's here. With me." He gave Ellie's waist a slight jostle.

Alan flitted through several different variously dubious and disappointed facial expressions, before settling on, "Okay. Well, have a nice time."

 _I'll explain later,_ Ellie signed with her free hand. Alan raised an eyebrow.

She hated this bet. But she was so close to getting her hydroponics kit. She couldn't stop now.

Fortunately, the rest of the conversation was interrupted by Principal Hammond stepping up to the microphone at the front of the room.

"Ahem," he said. Principal Hammond was a jolly old white-bearded man who always looked vaguely surprised to remember that he was in charge of a school. He was in fine form today, wearing something that resembled a gaudy old British riding jacket and spats. Horseback riding was technically a sport, Ellie supposed. They had it at the Olympics at least. "Welcome, all, to the 35th annual Hammond High School senior prom!"

There was a desultory cheer from the assembled students, most of whom really just wanted to start dancing or eating or making out with each other.

"Before we get started, I have a special announcement to make. You know I like to invite a surprise celebrity guest to our prom every year. And this year, your science teacher Mr. Nedry has helped me scout out a capital group of guests, absolutely cracking. Boys and girls, in honor of this year's theme of SPORTS, may I proudly present -" He did a small, awkward flourish with his microphone. "The Toronto Raptors!"

There was a small cheer from the four or five students who actually paid attention to basketball. A musical cue thumped out of the speakers, something bouncy and sports-sounding, as a side door opened from which the guests could file onto the stage.

The thing that came out of the door was not a basketball player.

It was, Ellie realized with shock, a dinosaur. About six feet tall and two-legged, stalking into the room on feet that sported long, wicked sickle toes. Not dressed in a basketball jersey or anything else fancy, just... there. Sniffing the air. A Velociraptor.

This felt like such a bad and surreal joke that she thought maybe Principal Hammond had done it on purpose. But Principal Hammond was scrambling backwards in surprise, nearly slipping on the gym's smooth floor. "I-" he stammered. "This is- What do you-" He turned, then, belatedly enraged, and bellowed, " _Nedry!_ "

Mr. Nedry, Ellie noted with the same numbly analyzing portion of her mind, was nowhere to be seen.

The raptor leapt at Principal Hammond.

Chaos broke loose. Students screamed and scrambled in every direction. The cake table overturned. More raptors charged in through the side door, a whole pack of them. Ellie didn't have time to stop and see if Principal Hammond was okay. She turned to Alan and Ian.

"Run!" she said. "This way!"

They fled through the gym's main doors with the crush of other panicking students, then hung a hard left and found themselves running through the school's maze of corridors through a route that wouldn't get them trampled. After several twists and turns, there was a door marked EMERGENCY EXIT and they poured out of it into the school soccer field.

More raptors were milling in the parking lot and on the other side of the field. Some students had already run out there and were being chased, screaming, further out.

Ellie leaned her hands on her knees for a moment, panting. "What do we do?" she whispered.

"These are the worst dinosaurs," Alan whispered back. He looked more awestruck than afraid.

"What, worse than a T-Rex?"

"Worse," Alan confirmed, "because they hunt in packs and you'll underestimate them."

"I'm not underestimating anything right now," Ian panted. "Just saying."

Alan motioned to one side with a sharp motion of his head. "Let's get in the woods. Climb a tree. I don't think they can climb."

"I'm not climbing anything," Ian argued. "I can't climb."

"Well, you're gonna have to learn."

"There's more raptors between us and the woods," said Ellie. "We can't go there."

"There's raptors in every direction. We've got to go one of them."

"Or," said Ian. He scrubbed his face with his hands, then rubbed both palms together as if trying to warm them, trying to focus and think. "Or or or. I don't know. Back in the building?"

"Raptors there, too, smart guy," said Ellie.

Ian made a fist in his curly hair, then straightened. "Wait. I've got an idea. Localized density."

"Localized _what?_ "

"We distract them." He fumbled at his belt and detached the rubber duck. "Raptor density increases around the area of the distraction, correspondingly decreases everywhere else, with any luck we get a raptor-free corridor and sneak past them."

Alan worked his jaw a moment, considering this, then nodded. "Okay."

"Wait, where are we sneaking past them to?" said Ellie. They hadn't agreed on that yet.

"On three," said Ian. "One, two-"

" _Wait!_ "

Ian ignored her and threw the rubber duck, a huge tall arc like a baseball pitch, all the way to the far end of the field. Raptors all over their field of view turned their heads and loped over, chasing the bright yellow distraction. The three students scattered. Alan ran towards the forest. Ian vanished back into the school building.

Ellie hesitated, torn between the two of them. _Raptors can't climb_ sounded logical, but she didn't want to go running through the woods when these things could be hiding behind every leaf. And the building was where the raptors had started, so that seemed like an even worse idea. 

There was a fire escape on the side of the building, only five feet from Ellie. She ran to it, hitched up her stupid skirt, and quickly hoisted herself up.

She climbed the rickety ladder to its top, then collapsed on the school's roof. The sounds of running and screaming were still all around, but they'd gotten more distant. She didn't know what to do from here, but surely help was on the way. Pretty soon, fire trucks would arrive with machine guns or something, and then-

Something made a noise behind her.

Ellie turned.

She wasn't the only one on the roof. A single raptor stood there, about twenty feet away. Its mouth was open, showing its sharp teeth. It trilled in delight and stalked closer.

"Oh, no," said Ellie. "Oh, God."

She was out of options for escape, unless she wanted to dive off the roof. She backed up towards the roof's far end, babbling in terror. "Don't eat me. I'm not - not food. Don't eat me."

The raptor continued toward her implacably. It was so close now, it could have been Ian advancing to take her arm.

"Don't eat me," Ellie repeated uselessly. "Don't eat me, please, please." In a fog of fear, she was both saying it and signing it at the same time. _Don't eat. Don't eat. Please, don't eat._

The raptor suddenly paused. Tilted its head.

They hunted in packs, Alan had said. There was probably another one right behind her.

"Don't eat me," Ellie whispered. _Don't eat me._

 _You can talk?_ the raptor signed back.

Ellie's eyes went wide in blank surprise. How did a Velociraptor know American Sign Language? What the hell? _Yes,_ she signed quickly, _yes, I can talk, I am a person, please don't eat me._

The raptor looked as surprised as Ellie felt. _None of the other humans can talk. Except one, but he's different._

 _They all can,_ Ellie insisted, wondering in the back of her mind who this other person was. If he'd taught a bunch of raptors to use sign language, then she might owe him her life. But if he'd taught a bunch of raptors to use sign language without teaching them not to eat people... Okay, she would think about this later.

 _All humans can talk,_ she signed, _they just talk differently. They talk with their mouths. Please don't eat any of them. They are my friends._ Even Ian was her friend when it came to not wanting him eaten by raptors, she supposed.

The raptor seemed to consider this for a moment, and then leapt.

Ellie screamed. The raptor landed on top of her, pinning her to the surface of the roof. It was only about a person's height, but it felt like being stepped on by a bodybuilder, someone entirely too big to be able to deal with Ellie gently. It leaned down, sniffing at her while she quivered helplessly.

Then it licked her face.

It was the strangest sensation Ellie had ever experienced. She had expected the raptor's breath to be foul and slimy. Instead it just smelled... animal. Healthy. Its tongue was delicate and not too wet, a little bit rough, like a cat's. Its eyes, alien and intelligent, were fixed on hers. The weight of its body was very close, _warm,_ so alert and intent on her that she wondered if it could hear her hammering heart.

She did not entirely want it to stop.

The raptor huffed out a warm breath, and then nuzzled her face, its snout rubbing softly against the corner of her mouth. Its scales were warm and dry. It licked her again, a smaller one, playfully.

"Oh, God," Ellie whispered.

Ellie was not very experienced. She'd never actually dated anybody (Ian did _not count_ ). She'd hesitantly found different people cute, but she'd never felt something like this, something that made all the nerves in her body snap to attention at once. She was very, very frightened, but she knew enough to know this feeling wasn't just fear.

The raptor withdrew slightly, though it kept Ellie idly pinned with a foot.

 _Is that how you talk with your mouth?_ it asked innocently.

Ellie opened her mouth and then shut it again. She had no idea how to explain to the raptor what had just happened, from her perspective.

 _No,_ she signed, _but do it again._

Screw the awkward nice boy Alan _and_ the smarmy bad boy Ian. From now on, Ellie was dating this Velociraptor.

The raptor bumped its face against hers in something that seemed to be amusement, then stepped off.

 _You look like food,_ it signed, _but you can talk. You are not food. This is important. I will have to tell the others._

The mention of others shocked Ellie back into a more general awareness of the situation. People were still running and screaming and in danger from the other raptors right now.

 _Yes,_ she hastily agreed. _Please. Please go tell them humans aren't food. And then I also need to find my friends._

 _Wait here,_ signed the raptor.

It moved to hop back down to wherever it had come from.

 _Wait_ , signed Ellie. She had one more, urgent question.

_Yes?_

_Are you a boy or a girl?_

The raptor looked at her quizzically.

 _Or..._ signed Ellie. She suddenly felt foolish. _Or non-binary. Or, actually, it's none of my business. I'm sorry. Go do what you were doing._

The raptor kept its head cocked a moment longer, then signed, _Girl,_ and hopped off the roof.

All right then. Ellie was into girls after all. That explained _that._

She sat down heavily and waited for the general screaming to stop.

 

**Author's Note:**

> With additional apologies to the authors of "By Claw, By Hand, By Silent Speech" b/c I totally stole the velociraptor sign language idea from them and Rule 34'd it. SORRY


End file.
